Minister of National Security Wayne Caines was interviewed at Fintech World’s: Blue Chip ICO’s Road Show at The Harvard Club, New York City, with the Minister discussing blockchain and cryptocurrency.

“This is an opportunity to Bermuda to diversify,” Minister Caines said. “Blockchain technology is now enveloping the world and and we want to be the leaders in that sphere.”

Tomorrow at 12.30pm, the Minister will host a lunch and learn event on the Cabinet Lawn to discuss cryptocurrency, where he will be joined by leading experts in the industry and they will share the Government’s plans regarding digital currency.

Premier David Burt spoke on the Government’s plans in the area in 2018 Budget, saying, “The growth of digital currencies is among the fastest-growing areas of global economic activity.

“Blockchain-based technologies have the potential to transform the way in which business in the world is conducted. While digital currencies are the first breakout area, there will be many more advances, and the Government wants to ensure that Bermuda is positioned to benefit.

“In keeping with Bermuda’s international reputation for sound regulation, the Government has assembled leaders in this area of emerging technology to develop a legal framework and regulatory regime that is strict but does not stifle innovation.

“Bermuda will be well served by the economic growth and jobs that this emerging industry can bring to our economy. The Government is moving at a pace reflective of the urgency of the need, while prudently ensuring that this new sector is internationally respected for its sound regulation and adherence to the highest standards of compliance, for which Bermuda is known.

“The Government, in conjunction with the Bermuda Monetary Authority, is currently developing legislation to govern Bermuda-based initial coin offerings and will, consistent with our vision, build a world-class regulatory framework for the oversight of digital asset exchanges and digital currency businesses in Bermuda.”

Another bubble that will go pop soon. Crypto currency, BitCoin or whatever you wanna call it can only be called a true currency if people truly trade with it. For the most part people are rushing out to buy it….and holding on to it and waiting for it to go up so they can cash out.

The bubble has already popped. Bitcoin went down to $6300 from $21241 last month. There are less buying it now that America and Asia are setting new regulations for the coin. It’s going back up but that shows that investors do not really know what they are investing in. Bitcoin’s code is obsolete and difficult to change which makes it a bad investment. Luckily I shorted my coins before the plunge and reinvested in Etherium which is really the only currency that has promise at this point. Cryptocurrency is the future but it’s the far future so unless an investor fully understands it they should not invest. Investing in it as a country at this stage is the worst idea ever. It’s not something you can just invest in and leave to grow. The volatility of it makes it a risk that could wipe a fortune away in a matter of days. If Bermuda goes down this route the risk is so great that the fallout will leave us with no way back.

Since the main ways to purchase an ICO are with bitcoin or ethereum the volatility does matter

ICOs are either held on a bitcoin or ethereum’s blockchain, both are decentralized making regulations near impossible. How can something that is in cyberspace be regulated? Bermuda’s government can’t even properly regulate the identities of the citizens so how will they be able to set up a proper KYC process?

In a global economy bans in other countries will hinder Bermuda not help it. How can an international company do business if the currency they are using is banned?

It is possible to regulate the entry points. An ICO is a funding mechanism for a Blockchain based company. They use centralised websites in order to sell tokens. This is how China banned ICO’s, by banning the websites.

Bitcoin is just code on a blockchain created by a faceless entity. Cryptos like this are not who the regulation is for. A lot of ICO’s have regular business behind them, with either a global team or a head office somewhere. Look at ARK, XRP and POWER. These are who the regulations are for. They want regulations to be seen as reputable companies and have already expressed interest in what the governments doing because we have a good international business reputation. There is literally a line of interested parties waiting to get in. Even other countries want follow our example to implement the same types of regulations. Just imagine a company coming all the way here to get started, how much weight that holds in the ICO world full which is full of exit scams. This was all explained in the talk with the cryptographers yesterday but it sounds like you missed out.

So like I said what happens with the price of Bitcoin doesn’t matter as long as that company pays thier taxes, and a ban elsewhere will bring more business to our shores.

Medical Cannabis is enveloping the world, not blockchain. This is still in its infancy stages while anyone invested in Medical Cannabis will tell you this is the next gold rush. With Canada’s and Europe’s continued support for legalization, Bermuda needs to look at making the same laws for medical as them and move into recreational. Tourist would flock to cannabis cafés in Bermuda and the banking, insurance and investment firms could cash in on this just as the ones in Europe and North America are.

Wayne, you have no idea what you are talking about. Blockchain is still being researched by the world and is not enveloping the world. As an investor in the major blockchain companies I can see I have a long ways to go before I or anybody will receive a return on these investments. There aren’t any Blue Chip blockchain companies so how can there be Blue Chip ICOs? An ICO is like an IPO without any fundamentals and there’s no such thing as a Blue Chip IPO.

Furthermore, Bermuda would have to fix its energy structure to host an ICO. Mining on any scale is too energy consuming for Belco’s generators. If this happens Bermuda will experience constant brownouts. Implement alternative energy structures first and then you can talk about blockchain and ICO. Before this, you have nothing to stand on.

Sounds like you don’t know how Blockchain works. Just like most of the people in the comments unfortunately. Blockchain is decentralised with means it is not necessary to mine anything in Bermuda.

Blockchain is enveloping the world at a greater rate then medical cannabis ever could its silly to even compare the two. That said I’m not against it, we should do both.

Blockchain is in its infancy true but that gives us more reason do be a first mover in the space.

He never said there are “blue chip” ICO’s. He was referring to Bermuda as the “blue chip”. Obviously an ICO could never be considered blue chip.. that is a title that is earned. Personally I would consider that Bitcoin and Ethereum are the blue chips of crypto.

If you knew how blockchain worked, you would know that an ICO has to either be created on a bitcoin or ethereum blockchain to work. Every other coin is an altcoin of the other two. If the plan is not to mine coins on the island and just to try and regulate ICOs neither you nor PLP understands what an ICO is. As you pointed out blockchain is decentralized. Being decentralized means that there isn’t a central system running it. The government can regulate the sale of ICOs to the citizens of Bermuda but cannot regulate it’s sale to the rest of the world. Each government has it’s own regulations just like the BSX, TSX and NYSE all have their own regulations and would have to be accepted locally by regulators to be able to legally trade in the country.

Blockchain by no way is enveloping the world at a greater rate than medical cannabis. There’s a mad rush in Europe, Australia, and Canada to build growing and processing facilities for cannabis. Billions are being poured into this rally. These same countries are still researching blockchain and have not approved it as a genuine currency. It’s not silly to compare the two since the whole point is to find a new pillar of economy for Bermuda and either could be looked at as a choice. Cannabis companies are becoming major players in the world’s economy. Constellation Brands who own Corona and other big brands have invested in Canopy Growth in the wake of the new Cannabis market. Canopy Growth and aurora cannabis stocks went up over 200% last year while HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd has steadily declined down to just $2.02.

Bitcoin and Ethereum cant be considered blue chips because like everything with blockchain it’s still all speculation without any futures in it.

An ICO can be created on whatever blockchain or fork of a blockchain they want not just BTC and ETH.

ETH came from BTC, but not everything was built on BTC, look at IOTA and NANO.

Different blockchains have different levels of centralisation, not everything is 100% decentralised.

See my other comment about the regulation just understand it won’t be to regulate sales.

Blockchain is the greatest technological advancement since the creation of the internet and it is changing the face of the world as we know it. It can bring banking to the un-bankable. Lightning fast transaction of extremely large sums of money. Estonia is using it for e-regestry of their citizens; Sweden, Ukraine, and Georgia for land registry; Ecuador, Sweden, Venezuela, China, India, Estonia, Japan, Russia, Senegal, Tunisia, Israel, Aruba (the list goes on) are making their own crypto currencies. I mean you can literally go all day on all areas blockchain touches. But smoking weed is cool too if thats what your into.

There isn’t much to understand about cryptocurrencies. They like the Euro, US dollar or any other currency. They have a perceived value, can be exchanged for other currencies and also can be used to purchase goods or services if excepted by goods or services supplier. In some subway fast food restaurants you can buy a sub with bitcoin. They are different than other other currencies because they do not have hard copy bills to use but in a few years neither will the other currencies. The big difference and what needs to be understood more than cryptocurrency itself is that unlike other world currencies that exist on government centralized banking systems cryptocurrencies are only backed by blockchain technologies. Blockchain is what needs to be understood.

Blockchain isn’t centralized like other banking systems so it does not rely on banks to keep ledgers of it. All ledgers of everyones amount reside in blockchains cyberspace hard coded. It’s kind of lie a virtual trading community where you can own a piece of the bank and control that piece yourself. When you set up a spot on blockchain tou have your own key code which lets you access the blcokchain but never change it. No one can change anything on blockchain so if someone sends you cryptocurrency through the blockchain by mistake they can not call the bank to get it back. Once sent the exchange goes through the chain hopping from block to block. Each hop has a verification process that gets more complex has it goes on until fully verified and set in a block permanently. This is attractive to some because they don’t have to rely on or pay for banks or other centralized systems to make transactions. You can see everyones transactions and they can see yours on the blockchain but everyone is set up as an account number not a name making those involved in the transactions anonymous to everyone else except the two parties involved who know each other’s account number for trading. You can make any amount of accounts for free and delete them at will so even if someone knows what the last account was you traded from you can create another to remain anonymous. Bitcoin’s blockchain capabilities are only for transacting the currency but Ethereum’s can be used to exchange pretty much anything that is digital giving it more potential for other uses.

Most of the other cryptocurrencies either run on bitcoin or ethereum blockchain so there’s little difference in comparison of the ones running on the same chain. Most others are like stocks that are paid for using bitcoin, ethereum or fiats and are held on the blockchain they were built on. These currencies usually held by the speculation that the company they are backed by will be successful and the copany will issue dividends or they can trade them at a gain. These other types if successful usually give payouts in bitcoin or ethereum.

With PLP talking more about ICO companies as the focus instead of non ICO blockchain companies I also suspect that they do not understand. The value would have to be in a company developing blockchain tech not an ICO that uses already developed tech. Either way we do not have the energy infrastructure for it.

Mining would destroy the island, the sea mount would be affected and quakes and faults and other serious issues. Our island is filled with cave systems both above and below the ocean level. If any damage took place it could shatter and weaken the cave tunnels which go all the way through our sea mount. We are like swiss cheese under the water, and just off our shore is the steepest and deepest drop almost anywhere on earth, like 5 miles straight down. For anyone to take mining seriously or any other type destructive development, would be like a suicide mission for our island. The myth of Atlantis is that it was sunk by shakings that shattered its underwater cave systems within its own mount, weakening the whole base of the island and making it break apart and sink below the waves. Bermuda should not be doomed to go down the same path as this! Also, Bitcoin is rumored to go flop soon, so any investing in that highly volatile thing would also be a bad idea. Bitcoin rose from the mist out of nowhere and made it big very quickly. Let this be a sign that was rises fast may also fall fast.

It’s not the same type of mining. Mining in blockchain terms is the process that a computer rig goes through to either create cryptocurrencies or to verify blockchain transfers. Though not the same it still could have an environmental effect on Bermuda. Blockchain mining takes up massive amounts of electricity so belco would have to import and use more oil to keep the mining going and house lights on at the same time. Maybe even have to upgrade their generators. Expect a electric bill increase if blockchain mining takes hold on island.

They are not bringing miners here, only the businesses behind the ICO’s. Mining is decentralised and can take place anywhere. The same way most of Bitcoin is mined in China, Georgia and the USA, but they have no Bitcoin offices in there countries or anywhere for that matter. Bringing industrial mining to Bermuda is completely infeasible and its not on the agenda.

Has the government considered the situation in Iceland – they (Iceland) have set themselves up as a centre for blockchain companies, and the energy consumed by those companies has now surpassed the electrical power consumed by households.

Iceland has geothermal energy to power its electrical grid; Bermuda has Belco.

They are not bringing miners here, only the businesses behind the ICO’s. Mining is decentralised and can take place anywhere. Like you mentioned a lot of Bitcoin is mined in Iceland, but there is no Bitcoin offices in Iceland or anywhere for that matter.